Protéger, Sauver, Aimer, Vivire
by Lost Girl 02
Summary: At Le Cirque Arcanus, a woman cursed to turn into a snake and a man with a darkness inside of him find hope in one another and vow to escape so they can finally be free to love and live. Three-shot (basically a really long one-shot plus a prologue and epilogue)
1. Prologue

**A/N: So this is a super short prologue to the story (one-shot) I've had cooking in my head since CoG came out. This story is also cross-posted on AO3.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Fantastic Beasts or Harry Potter.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Skender was a simple man. He only ever desired two things: money and loyalty from the freaks that made him money. Although, he didn't _want_ loyalty from the freaks, he demanded it.

So maybe he only really desired one thing.

He glowered at the overturned beasts' cart in contempt, snapping his fingers at the elf—he could never remember the creature's name—to get to work on righting it. Ever since that boy had run off with the Maledictus, Skender hadn't been able to find anyone willing or even able to tend to the beasts that remained (which was only a few Firedrakes and the Kappa).

He hadn't been lying to the kid when he told the boy he was the best stagehand he'd ever had. After all, he managed to keep all the creatures complacent, _and_ all of his limbs.

 _Figures_ , Skender thought, taking another sip of the firewhiskey in front of him. _Only someone who can get hard thinking about the snake-girl can handle the rest of those damn beasts_. Although even he would admit that his plan to keep the boy docile had backfired in spectacular fashion, he still maintained that dangling the carrot of the girl had worked for quite some time.

He was certain that the boy was always going to take the bait—ever since the day the girl was brought to Le Cirque Arcanus and he caught the kid looking at her with the strangest mix of hope and fear—and it was then that Skender knew what he needed to do.

He initially thought that he might run into issues if the snake-girl decided to turn and strangle the kid in his sleep—he really hadn't wanted to have to kill his star attraction—but when weeks started to pass with nothing of note occurring, he himself grew complacent in the fact that he had made the right decision. The boy had been wrapped around the girl's finger, and the fact that he knew Skender was the one who had made it possible for him to be with the freak, kept him in line. And for the girl, she was given the meagerest taste of freedom, crushing her spirit every time she had to get back in the cage.

On the other hand, it probably hadn't been a good idea to let the shields down around the stage when the crowd was that rowdy—looking back, it had just been asking for trouble. And sure enough, the boy had nearly gotten himself beaten to a pulp that night, and it had costed the ringmaster a not-insignificant amount of Galleons to keep the whole mess quiet.

 _Which, of course, only lasted until they decided to run off like they're in some goddamn fairytale, thinking I wouldn't find them in the end_ , he thought darkly, remembering what he had said to the woman earlier that night: _All of my freaks think they can leave._

Skender was sure that the two had been thinking of tying to escape for some time, but he had been banking on the boy's fear of reparations to keep him with the circus until his "year" was up. But, the girl must have planted some inane idea in his mind that they would be able to pull the wool over _his_ eyes and disappear into the city without him noticing.

He should have listened to that beautiful Frenchwoman when she first gave him the idea—keeping them apart, isolating the boy, was the only way to control them. _When_ he found the two again, he would be certain they wouldn't have the same opportunities to escape…that doesn't mean that he still couldn't use the two against each other.

He grinned, finally staggering to his feet, a plan forming in his head to get back his best attraction and the best bargaining chip he had with the purebloods of the Parisian wizarding community. After all, he only needed to find one and the other wouldn't be far behind, trying (and ultimately failing) to save the both of themselves.

 _I'd like to see the freaks try_ , Skender chuckled darkly, yelling for the rest of the "performers" to start getting ready for the night's show.

* * *

 **A/N: I really hoped you enjoyed this prologue, the next chapter (which I will try and get up in the next couple of days) is much longer.**

 **Remember to favorite or comment, I really appreciate the feedback!**


	2. The Story

**A/N: So this was the main one-shot idea I had and dashed out over the weeks after seeing CoG. I really hope you like it, and sorry not sorry for the length, there just wasn't a great place to split it.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

After only a few weeks working at the circus, when he really thought about it, he realized that it wasn't so different from living with the Second Salemers and his moth-Mary Lou Barebone. The ringmaster beat him when he was falling behind on his chores. Words like "freak" and "bastard" and "monster" seemed to follow him everywhere. He was looked down upon by everyone around him and he felt the weight of their stares as if they could see the parasite that he really was.

The only difference was that Credence was now alone.

He might be surrounded by the other performers and the wizarding community of Paris, but the performers shunned him, and the people came to gawk at the performers. And he was on the outside of both groups, never really belonging to either.

Chastity and Modesty might not have been his actual sisters, and even though Chastity reminded him of Ma at times, he had loved his sisters and he still does. But, the reality was that he had loved them only as much as he was capable of—failing to always protect them from their mother, but taking the blows when he could; giving Modesty sweets he found when he was handing out pamphlets; helping Chastity cut her hair, even though his hands shook when he picked up the knife.

"Boy!" Skender shouted, the words accompanied by a sharp blow to the back of his head. "Help me get this door secured."

Credence nodded mutely, not even bothering to try and ease the pain at the back of his skull. The pain of the slap barely registered for him anymore…besides, he hadn't been paying attention and the pain helped him focus.

He grabbed one edge of the metal door, it spanned the entire width of the "Creatures cart" and curved outwards slightly, and his arms shook as he strained to keep it upright, thankful that he had already managed to build up some strength since leaving New York. Once Skender had fused the metal with the wall, Credence fought back the numbing fear that rose inside him and the crawling beneath his skin when he realized that he had just help make a cage. _He's going to put me in there._ He thought, standing frozen in front of the door. _He must have figured out what I am._

"Get out of the way, boy," Skender growled, shoving his shoulder roughly.

Credence stumbled backwards, his back hitting the cart's wall with a painful _crack_. He winced, but that was easily overshadowed by the relief that he wasn't the one being put in the cage.

He watched, still huddled against the wall, partially hidden by the shadows, when some of Skender's friends dragged an unconscious body into the cart. When they threw it into the cage, he flinched in sympathy as the body hit the floor of the cage hard, the limbs tangled together. The cage door slammed shut, and Credence flinched once more at the harsh sound, the image of a belt flashing across his mind.

"She's going to be the new star attraction, boys!" Skender announced gleefully, licking his lips. "Don't get any ideas, I don't want to be losing any good men to her bite."

As Credence was studying the girl's limp body, the only thought that ran through his mind was: _It isn't me…As long as it isn't me._

* * *

The earliest memory she had was of waking up on the rough cobblestones of Paris at five years old, her dark hair wet from the rain, her stomach aching with hunger, and with only thought in her head being her own name. She remembered the haze of her childhood, of wandering from street to street, struggling to stay alive, to survive just one more day. It wasn't until she turned eleven that she realized that she had a darkness inside her.

When she first transformed, she was standing in front of the statue of the sitting woman, wishing she could be a witch. She had been living in the wizarding community in Paris for years, her whole life really, but had always felt separate. In the beginning, she thought it was because of her Asian nationality, if the hissed curses and slurs directed her way were any indication. But then, as she stared at the statue and felt the desire for magic to run through her veins, her blood turned ice cold and she remembered her whole body contorting into painful positions, her bones breaking and fusing back together, and her skin hardening into scales.

She didn't remember much of what happened while she was a snake. Nagini simply remembered fighting against the snake's instincts, instincts that were whispering, _Feed…feed…kill_.

When she first awoke, she was on a thin mattress, which immediately told her that something was amiss—she had never slept on a mattress before in her life. But when she tried to move, she felt rope burning her wrists.

The witches in the hospital explained to her that she was a Maledictus, a woman cursed to one day turn permanently into a beast (a snake in her case), her consciousness likely dying with the transformation. Nagini cried the whole day afterwards, she didn't want to lose who she was and when she had transformed, she had felt her _self_ , her very identity being pushed aside for the reptile's harsh instincts.

Although some of the healers were clearly afraid of her, as if she might spontaneously transform into a snake at any moment, some tried to soothe her, telling her stories of how the permanent transformation likely wouldn't happen until she was much older.

But, in the end, they turned her back out onto the streets. Only eleven years old and afraid and with a dark specter inside her.

Her eyes fluttered open, and Nagini found herself feeling like that eleven-year-old girl once again, in a strange place and with little idea how she got there.

The only difference was that she was not alone.

She eyed the boy in the shadows warily, struggling to control her heartbeat as she shook off the effects of whatever spell was used to knock her out. He had close-cropped dark hair, and dark eyes that seemed to pierce her own, seeing her all the way to her very bones. Nagini slowly pulled herself into a sitting position, curling her legs up to her chest.

"Wh—who are you?" She asked, her voice hoarse.

The boy—she should really be calling him a man—moved into the light and she saw the stubble coating his cheeks and chin, and the sharp angle of his jaw was devoid of any kind of baby fat. He started to shuffle towards her, but quickly turned away from the cage.

"No!" Nagini cried out desperately, not caring about how weak she might sound. She knew to be wary of men, especially the attractive ones, but she needed to know where she was. "Please don't leave me."

* * *

The girl's voice seemed to cut Credence's very skin, all the way to his core. It was soft and pleading and so incredibly broken—and Credence knew what it felt like to feel so isolated that any other human presence was better than being alone.

It made him feel even guiltier about the swell of lightness and relief in his chest that he wasn't the one in the cage. _Not me. Thank the heavens it's not me_ , came the thoughts, even as he caught sight of the girl, woman, behind the bars.

"I won't," he found himself whispering, but he kept walking towards his own makeshift sleeping area. He chanced a glance at the woman, she was around his own age, her dark eyes wide and filled with fear, and he had to quickly turn away.

Busying himself with pouring the woman a glass of water, Credence tried not to let the thoughts of New York overtake him.

His old room had felt like a cage at times, with so many locks on the door, none of which he was allowed to have the key to, that it took Ma nearly ten minutes every morning to let him out. He remembered the times where he had woken up and everything in his room would be destroyed, all of his meager possessions smashed to bits. Looking back, Credence realized that was probably the Obscurus in him trying to get out, but _that_ Credence had only known the pain of the belt on his back when Ma inevitably found out. And so he got used to sleeping in a room with little more than a trunk and a mattress barely a few inches off the ground—not so different from his "quarters" at the circus.

Credence had been so caught up in the memory of his prison-like room, that he hadn't noticed the fact that he had shattered the glass in his hand. The shards in his palm looked like they were embedded deep in his skin, but the cuts barely stung, even as the water he had poured trickled over them. He was more worried about what the woman would say when she realized how useless and broken Credence really was.

 _This is why Skender doesn't bother putting me in a cage as well_ , he thought, walking back to the woman's cell empty-handed. _My own mind is enough of a cage_.

"What happened to your hand?" The woman asked, and Credence didn't want to delude himself by thinking he heard actual concern in her voice.

He shrugged, not trusting himself to speak without breaking down. As he got closer to the woman, he saw the familiar evidence of malnourishment in the hollows of her cheeks and with how her collarbone stood out prominently above the neckline of her blue dress.

But, as he shyly met her eyes, he was shocked by two things. One was that underneath the fear and loneliness in her warm brown eyes, he saw genuine worry there…for _him_. The second was that…he realized the was incredibly beautiful. Even with the tangles in her dark hair, it still shone in the low light of the cart, and her pale skin looked smooth—he felt the irrational impulse to reach out and touch it, to see if it was as soft as he thought it might be, but he managed to resist the desire, keeping his hands firmly at his sides.

"Let me see," she whispered, extending a hand through the bars of the cage.

Credence couldn't stop himself from flinching when her hand grasped his wrist, gently pulling it forward. His breath quickened as he remembered every time Graves or Ma touched him as gently as this woman was now—it had been followed by a harsh blow every time. _The touch might be gentle right now_ , he thought, _but how long until her trick is revealed?_ Besides, he felt an intense wave of shame wash over him as he realized she might catch sight of the many scars that littered his hands.

"Please don't touch me," he practically sobbed, yanking his hand out of her soft grasp.

"I'm sorry," she said, slowly pulling her hand back, folding it against her chest, and shuffling to sit on her knees. "I-I didn't realize…"

Credence nodded curtly, still eyeing her warily—Ma had always disliked it when he disobeyed her. "Just don't do it again."

The woman bowed her head in a slight nod, and Credence felt an inexplicable pang of regret in his chest as she did so. He truly hadn't meant to offend her, but he didn't get the chance to explain or apologize since Skender chose that moment to burst into the cart.

"I thought I told you to stay away, boy," he growled, grabbing Credence by the shirt and almost throwing him into the wall. "She's as much a monster as anything else in this tent."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the woman wince at Skender's words, her eyes dropping to the dusty floor. Credence knew there was more to this woman than he was currently aware of, but she certainly didn't seem like a monster to him.

He was incredibly familiar with monsters, and he just knew, instinctively, that she wasn't one.

* * *

She eyed the ringmaster nervously, tracking him as he paced in front of the cage door. Just as she was sure that she could trust the younger, dark-haired man, she was certain the bearded ringmaster was not to be afforded that same trust. Nagini saw the way he looked at her, like so many others had looked at her: like her body was part of some sick entertainment and that _she_ didn't matter.

When he ordered the younger man away, she followed his retreating form with her eyes, not wanting to be left alone. Not again.

The ringmaster, Skender was his name, made it clear that he only saw her as entertainment for the "legitimate" wizarding folk who visited the circus each night. Nagini was not unused to being seen as nothing more than a Maledictus, nothing more than a woman with a blood curse to exploit, but the way Skender talked about the performances—she shuddered, she didn't want to think about them.

The dark-haired man soon returned, and she felt an inexplicable lightness settle in her chest. She skimmed his tall, hunched form, noting that his hand was wrapped in a red-stained, gauzy bandage. Nagini was glad that he had gotten someone to look at his hand, as the glass had been lodged in the skin so deeply that the blood had dripped from his palm and onto the floor of her cage.

She started at the blood drops that stained the dusty floor, wondering why he hadn't reacted to the pain that must have surely been focused in his hand. But, then she remembered the old, faded white scars underneath the blood, and had an idea as to why, but she didn't want to dwell on that possibility.

Her head snapped forward when she heard footsteps coming closer to her cage's door, fear dousing her entire system as her mind ran through all of the most horrid situations her mind could come up with. Nagini sighed in relief, however, when she saw that it was just the young man and that the ringmaster was gone for the moment.

"My name is Nagini," she whispered, taking the plate of hard bread, cheese, and the glass of water he extended to her. Not a single soul had spoken her name in months—since even before Skender's men had bought her from the last House of Wizarding Curiosities she had been "staying with." She needed at least _one_ person to know that she was more than just a Maledictus, more than just a woman who turned into a snake on command, that she _was_ a woman.

"I'm Credence Bare—just Credence," came the soft reply, dark eyes meeting warm brown ones, and she smiled.

Turning over, Nagini felt the familiar unease that came with sleeping in a cage, knowing that she was effectively the property of those who wished to use her. But she also felt the unfamiliar feeling of…something like hope. Or safety.

Her restless sleep was abruptly interrupted as she jerked awake to the sound of soft cries punctuated by loud shouts. Nagini flew to her feet, grasping the bars of her cage tightly, her eyes darting around the darkened cart to try and find the source of the noise. Her subconscious fears were confirmed when her eyes finally fell on the curled up ball she knew to be a sleeping Credence.

A tortured scream tore through the cart, waking the Firedrakes Skender had recently purchased and imprisoned in the cart. Her head whipped to the door, it sounded like he was in acute pain, and willing someone to help him. Tears welled up in her eyes as Credence cried out, half a sob, half a scream.

Taking a deep breath, she took a few steps back from the door, pulling herself pu to her full height. She closed her eyes— _I can help him. I_ have _to help him_ —as the familiar ice settled in her veins, her limbs contorting until she looked up from the floor of the cage. She wasn't entirely sure what made her own consciousness fight for control of the snake's body, but she wasn't going to waste it.

Slithering through the bars of the cage, she could practically taste the fear in the air, intermixed with the flavors of all the other beasts. Once she was halfway out of the cage—and it was a tight fit, even as a snake—she summoned all of her willpower, barely managing to transform back on such short notice.

As she caught her breath, fighting against the blackness that threatened to blanket her vision, Nagini started to crawl across the floor, her breath coming ragged. She was so exhausted from transforming twice in such a short span of time, and for keeping her mind intact while a snake, that she didn't have the energy to think of anything other than: _I must…get to…him_.

She pulled herself onto Credence's thin mattress, gently reaching out but stopping a hair's breadth away from touching him. Her mind immediately went back to how he violently reacted when she took his hand to try and help with his cuts.

However, her mind was made up when another cry pierced the air, and she felt tears start to roll down her cheek at the anguished sound. Nagini lightly ran her fingers through his short hair, trying to keep her motions as gentle as possible, even as her hand shook slightly. She curled her body around his, her chest pressed against his back, her knees tucked behind his own, and began stroking his arm in what she hoped was a comforting motion.

"Credence," she whispered, barely audible even to herself. "You're safe, I'm here with you. It's just Nagini." She wasn't sure if what she was saying registered with the sleeping young man, but she felt his breathing even out, his form relaxing fractionally.

Nagini closed her eyes, resolved to take whatever punishment might come to her in the morning if Skender discovered her out of her cage. But she kept running her fingers through his hair, and up and down his arm, the motions soon lulling her into a deep sleep as well, the tears slowly drying on her cheeks.

* * *

When Credence awoke and felt well-rested, he knew something was off. However, it wasn't until he tried to roll over that he noticed exactly _what_ made this morning different from the rest.

A soft, feminine groan vibrated through his shirt, feeling like it permeated his very skin. And, for once, the light touches he realized he was feeling—gentle fingers on his arm, breath against his neck, another soft hand brushing between his chin and shoulder—he wasn't afraid of.

Credence only had to turn his head slightly to see a mass of dark hair filling his vision, his stomach clenching when he realized who was behind him.

He had a faint memory of a nightmare, one of his daily terrors where he found himself back in the apartment building, releasing his Obscurus purposefully for the first time, the magic painfully ripping through him. Although this time, he killed Modesty, while Graves taunted him from the side, the words and guilt pressing in on him as if it was a physical weight. He felt himself start to shake, but a soft hum from Nagini, one that sent shudders through him, as she pressed herself closer to him, appeared to stop the tremors.

He realized that this isolated, likely abused woman had risked Skender's wrath—had risked association with _him_ —to save him from a nightmare. He felt a swell of affection that she would even think to do so…they had only just met after all.

The breaths against his neck changed abruptly, and he felt her body shift beside him, pressing so close in some areas that he felt the curve of her body against his, before pulling away, leaving only the touch of her hands on him. Credence hadn't realized how cold it was in the cart until her warmth was conspicuously absent.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, her voice layered with sleep.

Credence found himself turning around so he could face her, his mind taking a few more seconds to catch up with his moving body. He sucked in a breath sharply, realizing that their faces were now barely a foot apart—he could count every one of her dark eyelashes, and saw the ring of darker brown that bordered the golden-brown color of her eyes. He had known since she had first blessed him with her gaze that she was attractive, but from this distance…she looked more beautiful than anyone he'd ever seen.

"I'm sorry," she repeated, and Credence realized that he hadn't responded.

"No," he protested, maybe a little louder than he intended. "I don't mind."

Nagini smiled, a light pink color settling in her cheeks. "You sounded like you were in such pain…I needed to do something."

"Why didn't you run?" He asked suddenly, purposefully forgetting to address her unspoken question about _why_ he sounded like he was in pain. "You could be far away from here by now."

She shook her head, the smile on her face turning rueful. "Someone would've caught me before I got very far. Anyways, I don't have anywhere to go."

Credence felt as if her words could have been plucked directly from his own mind, but the heavy footsteps of Skender overtook whatever else he might have blurted out in the heated bubble that surrounded them. "Skender…he can't catch you."

With a sharp nod, sadness and resignation returning to her eyes, Nagini quickly stood up, breaking that bubble and leaving Credence even colder than before. She strode over to the age, turning her head to look at him sadly—he still hadn't moved from his mattress—before throwing her neck back, transforming into a snake as he watched. He winced at the transformation, climbing to his feet and rushing to the cage, and forced himself to watch as the snake's body folded in on itself, turning into the form of a young woman lying on her side.

"Boy!" Skender's voice shouted, the door to the cart banging open just as the transformation was finished. "I swore I told you…" The ringmaster trailed off, before bursting out into an echoing laugh. "Well, boy, if you're the type who's into… _that_ , I just might reconsider wanting to stop you!"

Nagini looked up from her position on the floor weakly, glancing between himself and the ringmaster in obvious confusion. Credence didn't know what to make of the comment, until he remembered his "morning problem," the tightness in his pants suddenly making itself known. He tried to communicate a silent apology to Nagini, but she refused to look up from the ground, the paleness of her skin turning a dark red astoundingly fast.

 _I'm sorry_ , he thought, clinging to a feeble hope that she would understand that he wasn't…that he was sorry for all that she had went through in the past day.

He didn't get a chance to talk to Nagini for the rest of the day, his chores taking care of the Firedrakes and the Zouwu taking up most of his time. In fact, the majority of the next few weeks passed in relatively the same fashion, the only glimpses of Nagini he got were at night, when the two would sit together, sometimes eating their meager dinner, sometimes simply being in one another's presence.

One evening, on an impulse, Credence stuck a hand through the bars of her cage, palm up in what was, hopefully, an inviting gesture. Her face was streaked with tears, and the dark circles under her eyes looked like bruises. He knew it had been a difficult performance for Nagini, the crowd shouting obscenities at her, encouraged by Skender in such a way that made Credence want to rush into the crowd, picking a fight with anyone who dared disrespect her—they thought her a monster because of the curse on her blood, but he knew it was the ones who found enjoyment in her suffering were the real monsters.

Nagini looked at his extended hand, a wistful look in her large eyes, before she turned her gaze up at him, a question in her eyes. Credence was in the process of nodding when the door to the cart burst open, Skender's voice emanating from outside.

"Boy! Get out here now!"

Credence reflexively snapped his hand back to his side, his shoulders curling inwards as if preparing for a physical blow, in addition to the verbal one. He glanced at Nagini apologetically as he quickly climbed to his feet, shuffling out the door.

"I'm here to make you a deal," Skender slurred, and Credence fought back the urge to bow his head or cower—he had been attacked by drunks in New York as well as Paris, but he was no longer the scared, put-upon, abused boy he used to be. "I've seen the way you look at _her_ , the Maledictus."

"She has a name," he growled, anger twisting and rising inside him, not unlike how the Obscurus would make itself known.

Nagini hadn't told him everything about what had happened to her before she got to Le Cirque Arcanus, but he could tell that her heart was too pure for a place like the circus—and if he could, he would protect her from men like Skender or those in the crowd.

The ringmaster waved a hand dismissively, his face turning steadily redder as the seconds ticked by. "Let no one say I'm not a reasonable man—you're the best stagehand I've had in months. Now…I'm prepared to give you the key, so you can do…whatever you want with the Maledictus, I won't judge…but you work here for another year, no questions asked."

The small iron key sat in the middle of Skender's enormous palm, and freedom for Nagini, even if only at night, was tempting. A large part of him knew how much she detested the cage, how it made her feel like less than a person—she had never quite said so in as many words, but he saw how she looked at the world outside the bars, and the tears in her eyes after every "performance"—and how much good a night, even sleeping on his thin mattress, of actual rest could do.

However, a smaller part of him wanted the key for much more selfish reasons. Credence would—and _had_ —denied the extent of his attraction for Nagini to many performers and workers in the circus for weeks now, but he couldn't deny that he had woken up countless times in the past week short of breath, his trousers uncomfortably tight, the image of long dark hair and soft hands still freshly burned in his mind.

"What did he want?" She asked quietly, and Credence looked at the key in his hand, guilt and shame building in his chest.

* * *

She pleaded and begged Credence to give Skender back the key—her freedom was not worth him being shackled to the horrendous circus for another year. But, no matter what she said, he refused to relent, saying that she deserves to feel like more than a Maledictus for a time. When he first made such an argument, Nagini nearly burst into hysterics—she had never had someone who cared so earnestly about her wellbeing…or that could even tell that she desired to reclaim some of the humanity that had been taken from her.

Every day she awoke, wishing and waiting for it to be night, never because of the "shows" she was required to put on for the Parisian wizarding community, but for the times Credence slipped the key into the lock of her cell's door. Nagini wasn't sure if he knew how much it meant for her to be the one to let herself out of the cage, but she appreciated the gesture nonetheless.

One evening, she watched the moon rise through one of the cart's small, slit-like windows, from where she was curled up on Credence's mattress, a place where she had been spending most of her nights. It had quickly become comforting to sleep next to someone—neither one of them having any motivations other than to rest—that she considered a friend, but was quickly beginning to feel… _more_ for.

A week or two (the days had started to run together) after Credence had traded his freedom for hers, she began to notice how she would wake up more and more mornings and his arms would be wrapped around her, pulling her snugly against his own body, the scent of something musty and sweet, yet undeniably _Credence_ filling her nostrils. Nagini couldn't let herself wish for more than friendship with him, however, because in the end, no one (including herself) could save herself from that final, deadly transformation.

Lost in thought, she was unconsciously staring at the spot where Credence generally slept, her heart sinking with each passing moment. He hadn't yet returned from finishing his final chores of the evening, and Nagini eventually gave up on waiting for him, stretching out on the mattress and falling into a fitful sleep.

Her dreams were filled with images of the world passing her by, legs and feet stepping on her serpentine body as they trampled her into the dirt. She dreamt of the cobblestones of Paris turning dirtier and dirtier with each passing year, while she was frozen in place, not able to move and barely capable of thinking. _Feed…kill…KILL_. She felt her body grow cold, scales falling off at alarming rates, only to be painfully replaced, her body stretching and contorting violently, but she found herself unable to scream.

Nagini jolted awake, her hair sticky with sweat and clinging to her forehead, her heart pounding so loudly in her chest, she was sure it was deafening. She looked down at her arms, letting out a brief sigh of relief when she saw pale skin peeking out from between the slits in her dress's sleeves instead of a snake's scales.

"Nagini?" A quiet voice came form behind her, Credence's hand coming up to rest on her shoulder. "What…?"

He barely had time to finish the word before she turned and pulled him closer, throwing her arms around his neck, and burying her face in the space between his shoulder and neck. She felt his own arms immediately move to wrap around her waist, one hand reaching up to splay across her lower back. The two stayed like that for what felt like hours, but was likely only minutes, Nagini letting quiet tears run down her cheeks and soaking into the shoulder of his shirt.

The gentle rise and fall of their chests soon fell into synch with one another, and she realized her own heartbeat was slowing incrementally until it matched his. Nagini was glad to have the reminders that she was still human, that the transformation hadn't occurred yet, and that she had someone who seemed to care about her in a way no one ever had.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, pulling back slightly, making sure to stay within arm's reach. She grimaced and rubbed uselessly at the wet spot on his shoulder, "Your shirt's ruined."

Credence looked to where she indicated and grinned weakly, but the smile didn't reach his eyes—those dark irises were filled with concern and melancholy and something unnameable. "My sisters, they always got the new clothes. I would mend the same pair of trousers until Ma realized they were no longer presentable. _This_ is hardly ruined."

She nodded weakly, settling more comfortably on the bed, crossing her legs, and folding her hands in her lap. Unfortunately, her movement had taken her out of the warm circle of his arms, but she was still close enough that her knees brushed his legs and she felt him tense at the mention of his mother.

"Can you tell me about them?" She asked quietly, biting her lip. "Your sisters, I mean."

That finally made Credence break eye contact with her, and when he looked down, she finally got an opportunity to get a good look at him. He looked more tired than usual, and she felt a pang of guilt hit her if he had been suffering at the hands of brutal and harsh Skender, and then she was sobbing in his arms, needing him to comfort her the second he returned. Although he no longer hid in the shadows like when she first met him—choosing instead to look her and others in their eyes, his anger for those working for Le Cirque Arcanus plain on his own face—Nagini had seen times, out of the corner of her eye, when he seemed to shrink as if taking up as little space as possible.

"Their names wer- _are_ Chastity and Modesy," he began, still looking at his hands folded in his lap, a light spiderweb of scars crisscrossing his palms. She reached out, clasping his hand gently, intertwining their fingers as subtle encouragement for him to continue. "I was the eldest, Chastity was only about five or six years younger than me, only eighteen. And Modesty, she was still a child when I left, she must have turned ten a few days ago."

"You really love them," Nagini smiled, watching his face become more relaxed and something resembling a smile turning up the corners of his lips.

Credence nodded, looking up to meet her eyes, a protective gleam lighting the dark pupils. "I hated that I had to leave them, but with Ma…dead, and I was…I didn't get to say goodbye."

"I'm sure they know how much you miss them," she reassured, giving his hand a light squeeze.

"I hope they're together," he admitted. "Modesty…there's still a chance for her to have a normal childhood. Chastity, she took after Ma too much sometimes, but Ma hated her just as much as the rest of us. If they are together, she'll look after Modesty, just like she did when I…" He trailed off, his eyes falling back to their joined hands.

Nagini didn't want to press him, but she knew a great deal about living in fear of something, and although in her case it was her future, she imagined being a captive to the past would be just as damaging. "When you what?" The words were barely a whisper, but she took her other hand and placed it on top of the hand she was already holding. "I'm here for you."

"When…when," Credence stuttered. For a brief moment, she thought she might have pushed him too far, that he was going to tug his hands away and demand that she get out of his sight and back into her cage. "When I was too hurt to protect them. When I had to step in, take a beating when Ma had her sights set on one of them. She was the only mother I ever knew but I…I can't believe that's all the family there is for me. I came to Europe hoping to find my real mother. I need to know where I came from."

Nagini wanted to cup his face, to force him to look at her and see the lack of judgement in her expression, to find only the care and affection she felt for the brave young man in front of her. How she was already in love with him, and how Credence couldn't say anything that would make her love him any less. How she would do anything to save him from the heartbreaking desperation in his voice and from the ghost of his adoptive mother. She could do that one good thing while she still could. But, instead, she simply nodded, knowing any other reaction might startle him, ruining the moment she wished would last for a long time—as she gave him her weaknesses and fears, and he showed her his vulnerabilities and past.

"I don't know them," she murmured, finally deciding to break the silence. Nagini gently maneuvered them so they were lying on the bed, her slim body tucked against his front, their torsos pressed together as she laid her head on his shoulder, feeling their breathing fall back into synch. "But I am certain your sisters love you just as much, and I promise, I will help you find your real mother." She felt herself start to slip into unconsciousness, safe with Credence and emotionally exhausted from the night, but she whispered something so quietly, even she wasn't sure if she truly said it aloud. "You deserve as much."

Nagini felt his whole body relax against hers, the barest ghost of lips brushing against her temple as she finally fell asleep.

* * *

Credence didn't fall asleep for some time that night, too absorbed with staring at the unfailingly kind, unbelievably beautiful, and impossibly selfless woman resting on his chest. Nearly everyone who was ever kind to him always revealed their true motives at one point or another—Ma only adopted him to "cure" him of his magic; Mr. Grav… _Grindelwald_ only promised him a wand and a place in the wizarding world in order to find the Obscurus and turned on him the second he no longer needed Credence's help; the Auror woman, Miss Goldstein, was kind but promised to get him and his sisters away from Ma, but couldn't. Only his sisters were ever kind to him without any other motivation.

And then he met Nagini, fated to one day turn permanently into a snake and forced to transform for the twisted and perverted entertainment of those who looked down on her for being a Maledictus. She had every reason to distrust him, to be angry at the world that dealt her a terrible lot in life, yet instead…she just wanted to help, to be seen as a person and not a beast. _To live_ , she had confessed to him once, when he had asked what she wanted to do if she was free of the circus.

Credence had never thought he was capable of much affection, barely able to protect his sisters from Ma's harsh words and the harsher touch of a belt. But, he also never believed that one day, he would feel most at ease with another sleeping only inches away—he could feel every breath she took, her body pressing against his own, her breaths lightly tickling his neck. Credence was no longer a scared boy forced to live in the shadows of an abandoned chapel, and although he didn't know _who_ he was, he did know he would protect Nagini with his own life.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind, then her eyes fluttered open, her lips curving into a smile as she looked up at him through her dark eyelashes. As he stared at her, her warm brown eyes seemed to swallow his whole soul, and he vaguely registered that he was bending his head.

When he had kissed her only a few hours before, it had been a thank you. For promising to help him, for not shying away from his past, for simply being his friend, his _only_ friend. But in the soft morning light, the quiet noises of the sleeping Firedrakes filling the air, her hair streaked with sunlight, and her eyes wide and inviting, he wanted to kiss her. To _truly_ kiss her.

Nagini shifted, somehow inching closer even though she had rolled on top of him in her sleep, her entire torso resting against his own. Her lips parted slightly, drawing his attention to them, his stomach clenching with desire as he couldn't bring himself to look away. Credence closed his eyes, leaning even closer, close enough to brush her nose, but before their lips could meet, a sharp banging noise echoed through the cart.

He jerked his head back, startled, and the warmth that had been building in his chest was quickly replaced with dread and regret. The knocks were Skender's warning that Nagini had to be in her cage, since the ringmaster would be magically unlocking the cart soon.

Credence wanted to apologize as he opened his eyes and watched as Nagini's face quickly turned sad. He hated having to watch her walk into the cage and close the door behind her, trapping her like some wild animal, but he could not think of a way to escape without one or both of them ending up dead.

It was if she could read his mind, because as the bars slammed shut, she turned to face him, clutching the front of his shirt loosely in her fist. "We'll find a way to get out of this place. We'll run and never look back. We'll find your mother and your family, and we'll _live_."

Bolstered by her words, Credence leaned forward once more, but this time he planted his lips firmly on hers. Her lips were even softer than he had imagined, molding to his own nearly instantly. The kiss felt paradoxically long and all too short, and he found himself wanting to chase her lips when she pulled back, even if there was only a little distance between them.

Nagini blushed, looking down at her hand as she unclenched it from his shirt, smoothing out the material as she did so. He could care less about the shirt—it was nothing compared to the faint grin dancing on her pink lips, he was in shock that _he_ had made her feel that way. She also reached up, cupping Credence's cheek, and for a brief moment, he felt a swell of anticipation that she might kiss him again, but his heart clenched painfully when she simply started rubbing her thumb against his skin.

"There are marks from the bars," she explained quietly, and Credence was grateful that she had the foresight to get rid of the evidence of their kiss before Skender came in—he didn't want to give the ringmaster any more ammunition of his…attachment to Nagini.

He reluctantly took a step back from the cage, the same cold feeling settling in his limbs that appeared whenever he wasn't near Nagini. Even as he walked away, turning to meet Skender as the ringmaster opened the door to the cart, Credence could still feel the impression of the kiss on his lips. He balled his hands into fists, digging the key into his palm.

When he chanced a look back at Nagini, she had not moved from where she was standing against the bars of her cage. Her expression looked heartbroken and he knew he needed to find a way for them both to escape. Credence realized that being free only at night wasn't enough for either of them. She was right—they needed to run so they could _both_ know what it was like to truly live.

* * *

She stared at Credence's retreating back, absentmindedly skimming the tips of her fingers across her lips. She had been embarrassed waking up _on top_ of him that morning, worried that he might be uncomfortable with being so intimately close—even though Nagini awoke to a storm of butterflies in her stomach as she sleepily opened her eyes and his face was the first thing she saw.

For the briefest instance, as she laid there in the early morning haze, Nagini clearly saw a future where waking up so close to Credence was not so surprising—no matter if she was the one holding him after a nightmare about New York, or if he was the one comforting her when she was fretting about her future, they would be there to help each other through it all. And for a long second, she wished for him to kiss her, and she believed he was going to—looking back, she realized, he must have wanted to as well—before Skender and reality interrupted her fantasy.

As with most days, she was isolated in her cage until it was time for her "performance." Although, this day in particular felt incredibly long, the minutes stretching to feel like hours and the hours seemingly going on for days. On occasion, Credence might stop by and sit with her while she mended her performance gown or as they ate in companionable silence, but today, he did not come, not even right before she went on—something he had been making an effort to do for over a month now.

Nagini took a shaky breath as she shed her everyday dress, exchanging it for the elaborate costume Skender had given her when she first joined the Cirque Arcanus. The rational part of her mind knew it was just another performance—upsetting, torturous, but almost trivial at this point. The other part of her mind, the part that was still replaying and reeling from the kiss that morning—her first real kiss—had been hoping that Credence would at least come and reveal that she didn't have to go onstage, that they were going to escape.

 _It takes more than one day to find a way to get free of this hellhole_ , she reminded herself, letting the "fortune teller" witch gather her hair into a familiar updo, applying the makeup herself that she had been lent around her eyes and lips.

Skender's booming voice rang from the ring all the way back to the cart, her cue that she should be onstage soon. She walked through the small, penned-in corridor that led to the larger cage that functioned as a "stage."

Nagini forced herself to listen to Skender's announcements, her eyes scanning the stands, the standard slurs and obscenities from the jeering crowd washing over her with little impact—they weren't anything she hadn't heard before. She flinched as one man threw a curse at the bars, suddenly thankful that the bars were reinforced with protection spells, but that didn't stop terror from creeping into her mind, her heart beating rapidly and her eyes darting around. These people _hated_ her…they would kill her if they could and laugh about it afterwards.

She felt tears well up in her eyes—she knew that being a Maledictus meant she was looked down upon by the rest of the world, but she had never realized just how much of an outcast she was. Even Credence, as close as she was to him, was separate from him as well…he had a family somewhere and would move on after she was gone.

Her dream started to play, in full color and realism, in front of her eyes as she stared out at the crowd. Everyone sitting there would move on after her performance, and live and die like normal, never thinking twice about the girl who turned into a snake for the rest of her life.

Without even realizing it, the shift had already started, her limbs contorting and elongating, and Nagini screamed. _This is it_ , she thought as her back arched, her spine cracking.

Somehow, a curse got through the enchantments, stinging her still-human neck. She cried out, the pain burning her throat, and to her ears, her cry sounded more like a hiss as she slipped into unconsciousness, surrendering to the serpent.

The blackness was all-consuming, pressing in on all sides, and she couldn't even hear the snake's thoughts like she normally could. She could only suffer in this purgatory for what felt like days or weeks, until she felt her consciousness returning to her body, and she fell immediately into a dreamless sleep.

When she finally awoke, for real this time, she surprisingly wasn't in her cage, but laid out on Credence's bed, although she was still in her "performance" dress.

"I didn't want to tak-change your clothes while you were asleep," Credence said from his spot on the edge of the mattress. His entire form seemed to be shaking and, she was mildly surprised and saddened that he was facing _away_ from her.

Pushing down her anxiety and worries that maybe he was too embarrassed or disgusted to look at her, Nagini slowly sat up, valiantly trying not to cry out as she strained her neck. She inched her aching body closer to the end of the bed, curling an arm through one of his and tucking herself into his side. She took comfort from having his solid form next to hers, and the pain in her neck and body was soon overtaken by the light, fluttery feeling in her stomach and chest as she felt his breathing skip and stutter as she let her weight settle against him.

Nagini had not been touched very often in her life, most too afraid to even get near her due to her Malediction, but that simply made her crave even a brief, innocent, physical connection with another. She realized that Credence had a much different experience with touch, yet there was no hesitation as he leaned his head against hers, his cheek pressing into her hair even though his body was still wracked with tension. He could give her comfort—and he appeared to _want_ to, if the way she would wake up entangled with him on this very bed was any indication—and she wanted to be the one return to that comfort, to stroke his hair and hold him when they awoke to face a harsh world together.

And as she closed her eyes, letting her just _be_ with this man, the only person who saw her as human, she felt a swell of affection and protectiveness and love in her heart. _I think I have been in love with him for quite some time_ , Nagini thought, the epiphany coming with little force or surprise. _I must have started to love him the moment I met him. And I don't want to be without him while I still have the choice_.

Her brown eyes fluttered open, the pain completely gone as she let the newfound feelings and dreams warm every nerve and fiber of her being. As she realized this, however, she felt his body tense even further, his hands suddenly flying out of his lap. She managed to catch a glimpse of his hands before he stuffed them in his coat pockets, the blood still staining his knuckles.

"What happened?" Nagini whispered, gently taking his hands in hers, pulling them out of his pockets. "What did I do?"

"It was what _they did_ ," he spat, anger coating his tone, and when she turned to look at his face, his eyes were staring at her with a mixture of fear and rage. "That bastard could've killed you. _I_ might have lost you."

The last few words were said so quietly, they sounded like shouts in comparison to the empty cart. She felt a strange mixture of emotions—love and heartbreak, elation and terror—as tears started to leak from her eyes. "You won't lose me," she managed to get out, trying to talk around the lump in her throat. "I hope that you won't lose me for a very long time," she tried to sound as reassuring as possible, but the memory of her most recent, harrowing transformation was still fresh in her mind. Nagini could hope that she wouldn't turn permanently for years, but she refused to make a promise that had the potential to be broken, especially to _him_.

"I couldn't protect you," Credence sniffed, his own tears starting to stream down his face. "And I _could have_ but I didn't!"

Her heart sank at his words, because she did not want to be yet another source of pain for him, especially since it stemmed from something he couldn't control. "You'll be there next time," she reassured him, knowing that he would not want platitudes or excuses—Credence might not have been able to protect her this time, but she was certain he would be the next.

He nodded, rubbing at his eyes, and on an impulse, as his hands were dropping back to his lap, Nagini took them in her own, cupping his fists in her palms and bringing them to her lips. She kissed each of his bruised and split knuckles, just a brief brush of her lips to his skin, but she felt a slight shiver down her spine at the intimacy of her action. Another tingle shot through her body when she looked up, meeting Credence's eyes, and found him staring at her with an unreadable, yet almost hungry-looking, expression.

She felt a heat rising in her cheeks as she stood, finally tearing her eyes away from his face. "I'll be right back," she murmured, dropping a kiss onto his forehead as she turned away, giving his shoulder a brief squeeze in reassurance.

Credence stood abruptly, his own face rapidly reddening, and he muttered something about not wanting to leave her alone, moving to tend to the Kappa, pointedly looking anywhere but at her. Despite that they had slept in the same bed for nearly a month, Nagini realized that she had never changed her clothes with him in the cart—he had always found a reason to give her privacy—even though he and countless others saw her real nakedness with every performance. Shaking her head, it was just _Credence_ after all, and he was not like most men and he had never intentionally made her feel uncomfortable.

 _Except_ , she blushed, pulling on her other dress, _when I wake up with a hardness against my back_. The first time she had felt _that_ , she panicked, worrying that he had only pretended to care about her freedom in order to…lay with her. But, then he awoke and was even more embarrassed than she was, and Nagini knew she hadn't misunderstood his good intentions.

Pulling her hair out of its complicated styling, she studied his stance—he hadn't moved from where he stood in front of the Kappa—his back still incredibly tense. Nagini, emboldened by the memory of their kiss that morning and by her feelings for him, made her way over to where he stood, wrapping her arms around his waist, pressing herself against his back.

He tensed for a brief moment, but Credence turned in her arms, his muscles relaxing, and he rested his forehead against hers. She closed her eyes again and felt her lips turn up subconsciously at the gesture, she might still be trapped at Le Cirque Arcanus, but she was sure that they would escape someday. Together.

She opened her eyes when she felt him take a deep breath in and was about to ask him what was wrong, but the words dissolved in her throat when his mouth met hers for the second time that day.

This kiss was desperate and heady, his lips moving against hers as he tightened his arms around her waist, crushing her against the solid planes of his body, his stubble scratching against her cheeks softly. She sank against him, feeling like she was melting in his arms, a pleasant tingle travelling up her spine as one of his hands moved to press against the middle of her back.

Nagini didn't realize that they were moving, too caught up with the forceful way in which Credence was kissing her and how their bodies were pressed together so tightly she could barely breathe, until her back hit the wall of the cart, a light _thump_ echoing through the cart as she hit the wood.

He pulled away, concern and worry overwhelming his dark eyes, slowly letting his body weight rest against her. She nodded briefly, _I'm okay_ , she tried to communicate to him, brushing a hand through his short hair, cupping his cheek as she dragged him back into another kiss.

The second his lips touched hers in a quiet kiss, sparks seemed to radiate from her lips down to her heart as she breathed him in, the gentleness of the moment contrasting nicely to the desperation of earlier. However, that desperation soon returned, as Credence started to deepen the kiss, their tongues meeting gently, his teeth nipping at her bottom lip. She pulled him even closer, only able to get in short, gasping breaths in between the rough kisses, breathy sighs escaping her, sounding incredibly loud in the near-silent room.

His hands seemed to be everywhere on her—travelling up her back, brushing against her hair and face, skimming dangerously low on her waist—and everywhere they went, her skin sparked and was lit on fire at his touch. She moved her own hands so that one was gently resting against his neck, the other combing through his hair, trying to let him feel all of the love and care she felt for him.

All too suddenly, Credence pulled back again, shrugging off his vest as he did so, and this time, she was the one to raise up on her toes, trying to plant another kiss on his mouth, but he dipped his head, his own lips landing on her neck. Instinctively, she knew it was exactly where the curse had landed, the residual sting quickly disappearing in a haze of heat and sparks and the tickly feeling of his stubble on her neck.

Nagini slowly started to push forwards, gently maneuvering them so she was closer to the bed and pushing his suspender straps down off his shoulders, as Credence leaned down, his back slightly hunched. He moved his mouth up her neck, pressing soft kisses into her pale skin, and she had never felt more cared for or more…adored. Her stomach started to clench with nerves as she sat down on the bed, unsure of how he would react to the change in position, but Credence was lost, his lips trailing up and finally reaching her mouth, pulling her into another kiss that seemed to set every nerve in her body alight. _She_ also didn't realize how intimate a position they were in until her back hit the mattress, Credence's arms bracketing her body, holding his torso above her, while his legs settled between hers, one knee wedging between her thighs.

A paradox of thoughts and instincts ran through her—she desperately wanted this to continue, but at the same time, she knew neither of them were quite ready to take that next step. Nagini pulled back, a soft smile on her face, her eyes dancing across his face, tracing the slope of his nose, his cheekbones, the curve of his kiss-stung lips. They were both breathing heavily, and she felt her heart beating so hard in her chest, she thought her skin might be vibrating.

 _Not yet_ , she thought, running a hand down his chest and slowly turning the two over so they were laying face-to-face, the heated tension slowly settling into a comfortable silence. _I want to be free when I'm first intimate with a man…with Credence_.

* * *

For the first time since Nagini started sleeping in the same bed as him, Credence slept restlessly, but not because of any nightmares. On the contrary, he was haunted by good dreams, and of her hands trailing through his hair, soft noises falling from her lips, his own mouth tasting the smooth skin of her neck.

He quickly sat up, twisting his lower body away from where Nagini was still sleeping peacefully, her form shifting as she subconsciously adjusted to the lack of his body heat against her. Running his hands over his face and through his hair, he glanced at her sleeping face, studying her—from where her dark hair fell over her forehead and brushed her eyelids, her dark lashes, her delicate pink lips, and even lower, to where a dark starburst was etched into the pale skin of her neck.

Credence felt the twisting, stretching darkness coil within him, and he wanted to explode. To find the sick wizard who had marked her skin in such a horrific way and…

 _You couldn't last night_ , something whispered in his head, and he wasn't sure if it was the darkness inside him or his own thoughts. Whatever it was, it was right—when Credence saw the bright light of a spell sailing through the bars of the ring, he knew it was going to land true. He was frozen, it was as if he had forgotten all of his anger and was just a boy afraid of his own power, terrified that the one good thing in his life was going to be taken from him, and he was powerless to prevent that from happening. Her scream had rung in his ears for hours afterwards, even after he had shoved his way through the crowd, landing a solid blow to the wizard who had cast the curse, before some of the other performers had pulled him back.

Nagini's expression of blatant fear as she stared at the crowd had been so different from her normally indifferent or outright contemptuous façade she wore when forced to perform. He knew something was off when her eyes skimmed over his form, because although he wasn't where they had agreed he would be for every performance, he had thought he could be clearly seen from the ring.

His anger was bubbling unnaturally inside him, very much like the Obscurus' power, but when he felt Nagini's hand brush against his leg, he felt it settle in his chest. Blasting a way out of the circus might be effective, but he didn't want to risk something going wrong, and in unleashing his power, she was hurt. He didn't think he would be able to live with himself if she was injured or killed because of him.

Skender's knocks quickly spurned Credence into action—he hadn't realized how late in the morning it had become. He couldn't bring himself to wake Nagini, she deserved as much restful sleep as she could get and more, so he picked her up, one hand under her legs, the other supporting her back, and carried her over to the cage.

His heart seemed to devour itself with each step he took, and he wanted to retch when he laid her down inside. _She deserves so much more_ , he thought angrily, _so much more than a cage or this circus…or me_.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice cracking as he pressed a lingering kiss to the corner of her mouth. _I'm sorry I couldn't protect you when you needed me to. I'm sorry you're still stuck here. And I'm sorry we haven't escaped yet_.

He quietly locked the cage, swiftly opening the cart's door as soon as he got there—Skender must have just lifted the magical locks. Credence wasn't concerned with how he must've looked, until the ringmaster gave him a once-over and immediately started laughing.

"Must have been a good night," he choked out in between laughs.

He felt his anger rise up once again, but he managed to push it to the back of his mind, reluctantly letting embarrassment take over as he took in his own rumpled clothes—his suspenders around his waist, his vest discarded somewhere back by the mattress—and his short hair was probably in as much disarray as it could be. "Do you need help with something?" He asked pointedly, trying to change the direction of the conversation.

Skender merely laughed, "I need you to feed the Zouwu when you pull yourself together. Merlin's beard, the snake must have been more fun than I thought."

 _She is not a snake!_ A surge of protectiveness seemed to provoke his Obscurus, and the thought seemed to come from both _him_ and it, and Credence had to focus on keeping the swell of power inside him at bay.

The ringmaster clapped him roughly on the shoulder, sending the younger man staggering into the cart's door, before meandering off to wake the rest of the circus.

Credence let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding, forcing the Obscurus back down as he rushed to grab his vest, calming his heartbeat and taking a look back to where Nagini was just now stirring, before he walked out the door. Fixing his appearance absentmindedly, he didn't know what she was going to think when she awoke, but he couldn't risk their…connection becoming more publicized than it already was (especially if Skender kept loudly announcing to his friends that "you wouldn't believe what the boy did with the snake-girl").

Credence was used to people staring at him, but those stares were usually filled with disgust rather than bemusement, or even worse, something like respect. But, he would have gladly withstood as many glares of horror as the world could throw at him, if it meant he didn't have to nod bashfully and let countless amounts of Skender's goons slap him on the back, asking him for obscene details. If they thought he was _with_ Nagini in that way—and the night before, he had felt the urge to do so, and the urge was so powerful it had surprised him—than maybe they would leave her alone.

It was an unrealistic hope, but Credence had believed in more fanciful wishes before.

Throughout the day, all of his chores were interrupted with performers and some of the other stagehands, asking him about the previous night, and he was tempted several times to unleash his Obscurus on those who seemed to only want to talk to him now that they saw him as a "man." He had been a man well before they thought he was sleeping with Nagini, trauma tends to do that to a person, and many of them had stood by and watched as the wizard sent a curse flying towards her with the intent to harm or kil…

"Pardón, are you Credence?" A feminine, French-accented voice thankfully interrupted his rapidly darkening thoughts.

He turned around, immediately feeling a blush rise in his neck and cheeks as he caught sight of the beautiful woman in front of him. Objectively, he recognized that she was gorgeous, with her sharp cheekbones and ruby red lips, but there was something in her dark eyes that made him want to be on his guard.

"Who's asking?" He crossed his arms defensively, keeping a wary eye on the woman as she pulled a crisp, folded piece of parchment from inside her coat's pocket.

"Someone who wants you to know…who you are," she said smoothly, her lips quirking into a dangerously alluring smile.

Credence slowly unfolded his arms, taking the piece of paper from her gloved grip, trying (and failing) to keep his own hands from shaking. On the small square of parchment there was only a name and an address in harsh black letters. "Who is…?"

"This woman," she nodded to the parchment in his hands and the name printed there, "she can give you the answers you are looking for. She did sign your adoption papers after all."

He stared back at the paper, his entire being thrown into chaos and confusion—he didn't know who he was, Ma had taken his real name from him when he was too young to even remember it, and he did not want to believe that being a Barebone was the only identity he would ever have.

Crumpling the parchment in his hand, he made his way back to the beasts' cart, hunching his shoulders and trying to get through the forming crowd as quickly as possible. His mind was swirling with anticipation (at finding out where he was from and who he really is), terror (for the same reasons), and anger that he was still trapped at this damn circus and unable to get the answers he so desired.

He walked into the cart, his heart twisting as he saw Nagini clutching her performance gown, hardly moving as soft sobs were barely audible even in the quiet cart. "Nagini," he hissed to get her attention, even as he heard Skender's footsteps coming closer.

"Credence," she breathed, standing up and wiping at her eyes as she walked over to him, their bodies only separated by the metal bars of the cage. There was a question in her eyes, but he saw nothing but concern and affection for himself there in her small smile—he had never seen such care directed towards him in his whole life.

"I think I know where she is," Credence whispered, slipping her the parchment through the bars. "We escape tonight."

Nagini looked at him with shock, her hand reaching out to cup his face. Her lips were pressed in a determined line, but her eyes were sad, and Credence wished he could give her more reassurance, but the world seemed like it was spinning around him, and the only thing keeping him grounded was her hand on his skin.

Before he could lean into the touch, Skender burst into the tent, his face disturbingly darker and angrier when compared to that morning. "Hey, I've told you to stay away from her, boy," he glared at Nagini, sneering darkly. "Did I say you could take a break? Clean out the Kappa."

Credence glared back at the ringmaster—once he would have been frightened in the man's change of personality, but now he was just plain furious. His Obscurus was dangerously close to the surface, but he managed to keep it at bay, nodding curtly and moving back to the Kappa, his eyes only leaving Nagini when she began to change into her performance dress. When he chanced a glimpse back over his shoulder, one of the witches who worked in the circus was putting her hair into a complicated hairstyle, as Nagini applied the makeup that darkened her eyes and lips.

He watched her as she walked into the ring, amazed that she still walked with her head held high. His eyes were drawn to the exposed skin of her neck—no one would be able to tell that a day earlier it had been marked with the painful burn of a curse.

 _Must protect her_ , the thought raced through his mind, and he agreed wholeheartedly. _I have to get us out of here_.

Credence wanted to smirk as Skender gave his usual speech, but he kept his eyes trained on her. A beautiful Maledictus, yes, but she was so much more too.

 _She deserves a life beyond this place_.

"…Every night, she is forced to transform into a," the ringmaster's booming voice suddenly cut through his thoughts, the older man noticing that Nagini still hadn't transformed and the crowd was getting restless.

He banged the bars with his cane, and something flickered in her eyes, almost like determination.

"She is _forced_ to transform into," Skender demanded, and that was the final straw.

The anger that had been slowly bubbling and pulsing in the pit of his stomach, finally rose to a boiling point, and for the first time in a while, Credence didn't want to push it down. As he watched Nagini throw her head back, the painful transformation starting, he turned around, picking up a loose rod, and smashing the Firedrakes' cage to bits.

Chaos seemed to break loose as the tent caught fire, and he saw Nagini strike at the cage, causing Skender to stagger backwards in shock. He shoved his way through the crowd, ducking as the Zouwu was released, crashing through the square, and he followed the snake cutting a path through the terrified wizards and witches.

Ducking out of the tent, he forced himself into a small alley, letting out a sigh of relief when Nagini's snake form slithered in, coiling up and spasming as she started to shift back into a human.

"Thank you," she whispered sleepily, a small smile on her face as she curled up on the alley's dirty ground, completely spent.

 _Thank you_ , he thought, steadying his own breathing and preparing to keep watch over her. _Thank you for giving me the courage to finally get us out of there_.

* * *

Nagini scanned the crowd as she and Credence walked through the market, hoping that no one was at the circus the night before and could potentially recognize them. They didn't quite look inconspicuous, her hair coming out of its carefully styled updo—due to both her transformation and from sleeping on the ground—and although she had scrubbed the makeup off her face earlier that morning, she still stood out in her ruffled, blue and gold costume. She squeezed Credence's hand, looking down as she thought she caught a glimpse of Skender in the crowd, her heart stuttering for a brief moment.

She felt Credence brush her shoulder, and when she looked down, she saw a slightly smashed bread roll in his hand. Smiling gratefully, she took one half of the roll, letting the bites practically dissolve on her tongue.

Once they finally left the market, turning down one of the more empty Parisian streets, Nagini felt like she could breathe once again. She had memorized the address, and she never thought she would be thankful for her transient childhood, but it now meant she could lead Credence right to the woman who might hold the answers to his past.

Without needing to speak, the two came to a halt underneath a bridge and she glanced up to the room the parchment had led them to. _I hope this Irma holds the answers you need_ , she thought, letting go of his hand briefly, her chest tight. _I hope that you can finally find peace_. And, selfishly, she hoped that she was some help in the process because in the back of her mind, she knew there was a chance he would leave her to be with his real family, leaving her alone in the world once again. Although, if that happened, she would understand, knowing that love and family was not something one threw away on a whim, and she would not want to be the one to keep him from finding happiness…she wanted to save him from a horrible future.

"She's home," he muttered bleakly, almost like he didn't quite believe the words coming out of his mouth.

Nagini stepped out from underneath the bridge, looking between the light shining in the window and Credence, his own eyes never leaving the building. She kept her hand resting on his side as she did so, simultaneously hoping that he could draw some comfort from her touch and not wanting to let him go quite yet.

She felt his reluctance when she had to tug on his hand in order to get him moving out from off the wall. Leading the way, she slowly made her way up to the top floor, her heels echoing too loudly on the wooden floor, feeling Credence start to withdraw at her back, his confident demeanor from their escape from Le Cirque Arcanus retreating behind the anxious boy she first met.

When they finally stopped in front of the curtains that obscured the room where Irma must live, she gently grabbed his forearm, pressing closer to him so they could walk through together.

" _Qui est là?_ " A high-pitched voice asked from behind another set of gauzy curtains.

Nagini moved her hands to his shoulders, almost as if she was hugging him, silently trying to give him his confidence back. " _Ton fils_ , madame," she replied, her most desperate hope coming out of her mouth before she could weigh her words—that this woman was his mother.

" _Qui?_ " The voice replied, and her heart dropped, feeling like she had been stabbed—she couldn't imagine what Credence would be feeling when he found out.

He stepped forward, and she reluctantly let him move out of her arms as he pushed through the curtains, and she wasn't far behind. "Are you Irma?" He asked, his voice quiet and heart-wrenchingly sad. "Are you Irma Dugard? I'm sorry, your name is on my adoption papers. Does this make sense?"

If she hadn't already given him her heart, she would have done so all over again. He was desperate to know who he was, and yet he was still apologizing for bothering this woman, despite knowing that she held the power to completely change his entire life.

"You gave me to Mrs. Barebone in New York?" He continued, and she tried to keep her face impassive as he mentioned the woman who had given him her name and then abused him.

Credence crouched down as a small woman, not even come up to his knees, emerged from the curtains, a wide smile splitting her face nearly in half as she finally set her eyes on the young man in front of her.

"I am not your mother," she explained, her French accent extremely prominent, and Nagini saw his shoulders slump minutely. "I was only a servant. You were so beautiful baby and you are beautiful man." As Irma slowly pulled Credence into a hug, Nagini smiled happily—the small woman might not be his mother, but she knew where he was from. Plus, she had to agree…he had grown into a very attractive man.

"I did not want to leave you there," Irma continued, although her voice sounded muffled compared to the quiet thump that drew the younger woman's attention.

"Why didn't they want me?" Came the heartbreaking question.

Nagini looked at the man she loved with a sad smile on her face—he had been through so much and yet she heard exactly what she had been asking herself for the longest time: _why don't I belong?_ She didn't dare hope or dwell on the notion that maybe… _we could not belong together from now on_ …there were too many unknowns in their lives.

But before she could even fully let the thought take form, another, louder noise—almost like wood breaking—came from behind her.

As she turned to investigate, Nagini managed to catch Irma's response: "I took you to Mrs. Barebone because she was supposed to look after you."

The faint noise of someone breathing and wood scraping became so deafening until she couldn't even hear Credence's reaction, her heart beating in her ears as she saw the wood of the wall pulsing, almost like it was alive. She reached a hand out to touch it—she had never seen magic do something like this before—but she let out a cry when a hand grabbed hers, yanking her roughly towards the wall.

She felt herself start to transform as the wall seemed to open up, wooden beams flying around her, trying to trap her, and a man stepped out, a cruel look on his face. Trying to focus on not completely transforming proved difficult, especially when she saw a flash of green light up the room, and Nagini tried to scream, but it came out sounding like a strangled hiss.

The small woman fell to the ground as stiff as a board, her face frozen in a pleasant expression, the curse having barely missed Credence. However, an explosion ripped through the entire roof of the building, blasting the wall away from Nagini, but she remained unharmed, her mouth opening as she saw the dark energy blast the building once more, piling tons of debris on top of a man in a dark coat and hat. A bubble seemed to be protecting him, and the darkness pulled the debris away, suspending it in midair, before sending it slamming back down.

She heard the man whisper something, but with the air buzzing with magic and with screams that sounded incredibly like Credence echoing all around her, she could not make out what was actually being said. As she watched, the man Disapparated, but the darkness stayed hovering in the air, before slowly travelling downwards, a familiar shadow appearing and solidifying.

Credence quickly turned to face her, a pained expression on his face—his dark eyes were filled with more regret and sadness than she had ever seen in them before. Although she had not completely processed what she had just witnessed, Nagini did know that her love was terrified. She took a step forward, then another, until she was close enough to pull him to her, wrapping her arms around his neck, one hand reaching up to cradle the back of his head.

 _You're alright_ , she thought, hoping he would understand that from her embrace, not wanting to break the silence quite yet. _We're alright_.

* * *

Neither him, nor Nagini, had said a word since they left the now-roofless loft, he was consumed with worry and terror—how was she going to react once she realized what he was?—but she had stayed by his side, holding his hand as she led him to a similar-looking building, her eyes darting around every corner.

"In here," she whispered, leading him up the back stairs, emerging at a landing, light flooding from the skylight to illuminate a dusty floor and not much else.

Nagini quickly locked the door behind him, before letting go of his hand and arm, the impression of her fingers lingering, and opening the skylight in one swift motion. She sent him a pointed glance, grabbing the edge of the window and pulling herself up, disappearing out onto the roof.

He took several steadying breaths, his vision going in and out as the image of Nagini, standing in the middle of his destruction, flashed in his head. When he had lost control of his Obscurus in the loft, he hadn't been thinking about anything other than getting his revenge on the man that had taken away his one chance at answers…he had forgotten about Nagini.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-I didn't mean for you to," Credence stuttered, his voice breaking as he pulled himself up out of the skylight. He needed her to understand that he hadn't meant to put her in danger, that he would never want to hurt her. _I can't believe she's still with me_ , he thought, staring up at where she was standing at the edge of the roof, silhouetted by the sunset, the Eiffel Tower glimmering behind her.

He remembered Chastity's whispered confession to Modesty one night, how she dreamed about going to Paris someday, calling it the City of Love, and getting kissed under the Eiffel Tower. Her and Modesty had sighed, cooing about how romantic the dream sounded. Back then, he would have never believed he would one day, not only go to Paris, but sit in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower with a woman he lo…cared about. _Someone this kind and beautiful that keeps choosing to stay_.

Nagini shook her head, walking closer to where he was sitting, his shoulders immediately hunching, unable to forget the memories of his own belt hitting his back and hands. She crouched down to his level, taking his hands in hers, and he was distracted by the fact that she was so comfortable touching him. "Can you show me?" She asked gently, her voice a little too steady to be unforced, but when he met her eyes, he saw only concern and affection.

"There's this _parasite_ ," he started, his power crawling under his skin, "inside me. I destroy everything around me when it gets out. I can't-I can't let it out without hurting you."

She smiled sadly, leaning her forehead against his own, whispering, "Credence, you won't hurt me. Learning to control your power…it's better than living in fear of it, or keeping it hidden."

He nodded slowly, closing his eyes and gently pulling his hands out of her grasp. He felt the Obscurus rising inside his chest, and he tried to direct it outwards through his palm, but when he felt the darkness burst forward, he buried his head in his arms, unable to look at how Nagini must be repulsed by him. Credence soon felt the energy dissolve into the air, disconnecting from his hand, and he breathed a sigh of relief even as he felt his heart stop beating when he heard Nagini's heels tap the rooftop tiles next to him. He tracked her movements, staring at the hand she rested on his shoulder, leaning her head towards him.

"You're not afraid of me?" He asked, trying not to let his surprise and shock show that her touch was still so gentle after that… _display_.

"Are you afraid of me?" Nagini replied, a smile dancing on her lips but there was worry in her brown eyes.

In response, he tilted his chin, capturing her soft lips with his, feeling her exhale gently, her other hand coming up to cup his cheek. He pulled back after a brief moment, his heart racing—he didn't think he would ever get tired of kissing her.

"Let's go back inside," she whispered, taking his hand once again and pulling him to his feet. Nagini pressed another kiss to his mouth, this one firm, almost like a promise, and he gently tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, memorizing every detail of her.

He followed her back down into the large room, the sun had disappeared and so only the moonlight lit the room, making Nagini's dress look like it was made from water, the gold threads shimmering softly in the darkness. Credence wanted to tell her she was beautiful, to say something that let her know how much he cared about her, how much he wanted to keep her safe, but they all stuck in his throat. It wasn't the right time, they had watched someone die today—he tried to _kill_ someone today—and there was now a real chance that he might never find out who he really was.

He sat on the dusty floor, laying back, his entire body suddenly feeling the exhaustion of the past few days. After all, he hadn't gotten any sleep the night before, sitting in the alley, Nagini's head in his lap as he tried to keep them hidden and out of Skender's clutches.

"We'll figure out a plan tomorrow," she promised, laying down next to him and curling her body into his side. He slowly wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pressing her even closer into him until he could feel the entire length of her body against his own, feeling himself relax as her arms wrapped around his waist.

The two fell asleep like that, almost as if they were becoming one person, her head resting on his chest and their legs tangled up with one another. Even when they awoke, Credence blinking the sunlight out of his eyes and relaxing despite the hard floor at his back, they had not moved even one inch.

She sat up first, brushing her hair over her shoulder and sending him a wide smile that seemed out of place in the empty room. "Morning," she bent down, giving him a quick kiss, a content look in her eyes.

Credence smiled, pulling her into a longer kiss, wrapping his arms around her waist to tug her against his body, his stomach clenching as he felt her curves press against his chest. He let himself get carried away, wanting to take every chance he had with her while she was still here, deepening the kiss ever so slightly, before a soft chirp broke through the stillness of the rest of the room.

With a laugh, Nagini pulled back, her lips tantalizingly pink, and the chrips seemed to get louder and more insistent. He saw a small, fuzzy ball hop towards the two, and felt a different pang in his stomach as he realized it was a baby chick.

He pulled out the last of the bread roll, extending a shaky hand to offer the last few crumbs to the bird. Giving his shoulder a light squeeze, Nagini stood up, looking up through the skylight, her posture tensing. Turning his attention back to the chick, he couldn't help but think that it looked so innocent and scared, looking exactly like he had felt almost every day since he could remember.

"Come out," he whispered, hearing the sadness even in his own voice. "Just for a while. Be free." _Be free like we want to be_.

"Credence," she called, and when he stood up, she pointed up through the skylight, seeing a man with white-blonde hair and mismatched eyes lounging against the building's chimney.

Determined, Credence pulled himself out of the skylight and Nagini soon followed, neither wanting to cower before Grindelwald. In his case, he wanted to prove to this man that he was no longer that abused, desperate boy from New York, that he was not someone who could be manipulated so easily—he had seen the news stories, his blood boiling as he read that the dark wizard had taken the form of a MACUSA Auror, Percival Graves.

"What do you want?" He demanded, anger coating his every word.

"From you, nothing," Grindelwald said smoothly, his voice had a peculiar accent to it, but not one that Credence recognized. " _For_ you…everything I never had. But the question is, what do you want, my boy?"

"I want to know who I am," he answered quickly, bristling at being called a boy. He hadn't been a boy for quite a long time.

The blonde wizard held up a square of parchment, and he saw Nagini's head swivel between the two men, her eyes wide with apprehension. Grindelwald threw the paper over to him, and as it touched his hands, it unfolded into a map of the city below them, a large raven in the center.

"This is where you will find proof of your _true_ identity," he stood up, calmly placing his hands behind his back. "Come to _père la chez_ and you will discover the truth."

Once Grindelwald had Apparated away, Credence turned to the woman at his side who was gazing up at him, a silent question in her eyes. _Can we trust him?_

He knew the answer was no, but he couldn't pass up the opportunity to find out where he was from, after all, he didn't really have much of a choice.

* * *

Nagini followed him quietly, her hands wrapped around one of his arms, her eyes trying to make sense of the night around her. She had tried to convince Credence that there could be another way to find out who he was without going to Grindelwald…nothing good could come from being in the dark wizard's debt. But, he was insistent, and if she couldn't change his mind, she was going to be there, never leaving his side, helping him find out the truth as a way to save him or set him free.

The crypt was large and imposing, a giant raven keeping watch—although over the ghosts that still haunted its grounds, or over those that dared to trespass on the ancient family's graves, she wasn't certain. She saw the name "Lestrange" carved right underneath the raven, and felt a shudder run up her spine. Nagini had heard tales of some of the Lestrange family, a powerful, established, and ancient wizarding line…one with a missing male heir. She hoped this wasn't the final answer to Credence's past, she would loathe for him to learn that he simply came from another abusive family.

"I only need the boy to die tonight," a male's voice came from behind the pair, the French-accented words filled with malice.

Nagini quickly turned around, not even thinking as she stepped in front of Credence, backing up until they were in a corner, and she raised her head in defiance, staring down the man's wand. _You are not going to take him_ , she thought, hoping that she appeared braver than she felt.

"Move out of the way!" He shouted, his face twisting into a mask of rage and pain. "If I must kill you as well as Corvus, I shall."

Fear coursed through her veins, but it made her blood heat to a roaring inferno instead of the iciness that would precede a transformation, because if she was going to die, she would do it gladly. She would die as a woman protecting the one she loved, not spending her last moments as a serpent.

Before the man could even let a curse or spell fly, a crash sounded from outside and an odd group entered the crypt—two men, two women, all dressed impeccably, and making her feel slightly self-conscious in her old costume, her hair a mess of strands.

"Yusuf?" The shorter of the two women asked, looking beautiful and ethereal in her pink dress, but her face held surprise and hurt.

"Is that really you, Leta?" The man asked, surprised, "My little sister?"

"So, he's your brother," Credence spoke up from behind her, his body tensing palpably.

 _He must have heard the same rumors at the circus that I have_ , she thought, reaching a hand back to brush against his arm, trying to keep him behind her, where he was safe.

"Who am I?" He demanded, and the woman bit back, slightly dismissively: "I don't know."

Credence moved forward, stepping in front of Nagini now, his head shaking and his voice getting louder and more insistent, nearly talking over Leta. "I'm tired of living with no name and no history. Just tell me my story and then you can end it."

Her heart sunk at those words, that he was willing to die as long as he knew where he came from. _Don't you know I'll be heartbroken_ , she tried to tell him, and was even opening her mouth to do so, when the first man, Yusuf, began telling them about his own past.

She listened in horror as seemingly every horrid rumor about the Lestrange family was proven true, about a man so selfish, he had cursed a woman to become his wife, never loving anyone (not even his own daughter) until a son was born.

"So, this is the truth?" Credence demanded, his voice wary, however, as he tried out the name. "I am Corvus Lestrange?"

"No," Leta cried, her voice breaking and filled with so much regret that Nagini felt her heart crack a little bit for the woman—no one deserved to have a life filled with so little love and so much despair. " _No_!"

The two half-siblings started arguing, and as she looked at Credence, she saw him struggling to comprehend the prophecy Yusuf was claiming he was the subject of. She rubbed a hand down his back, hoping that he might understand that no matter what, no matter who he was, she was still here. She saw the minute his face turned frightened and tortured when Yusuf threatened to kill him, Corvus, once again.

"I already killed him," Leta revealed, her voice breaking and thick with tears. " _Revelio_."

A book flew towards her, and the elegant woman knelt down, a magical tree appearing in front of her. As Leta told her own story, about a trip across an ocean, ending with her little brother floating towards the bottom of the sea, a baby Credence safe in her arms. Nagini kept her eyes on Credence, watching as almost every emotion flickered in his dark eyes—anger, fear, despair, all leading to a resigned gaze as he stared at the ground.

"You didn't mean to kill him, Leta," a tall, red-haired man said, taking an awkward step forward. "It wasn't your fault."

"Oh Newt," she sighed, looking at him sadly. "You never met a monster you couldn't love."

Nagni felt a wave of increasingly familiar heartbreak and resignation wash over her, as she had thought the same thing hundreds of times over— _no one can love a monster…a monster isn't capable of love_ —but then she had met Credence, a man just as broken as herself, who thought himself a monster as well, but she loved him with all her heart.

"Leta," the taller, dark-haired woman asked, "do you know who Credence really is? Did you know when you swapped him?"

"No." The simple reply hung in the air, and she felt Credence let out a breath, and when she saw his crestfallen face, her heart broke a little more.

A grinding sound interrupted the silence, a door opening in the wall of the crypt, and she could see stairs leading downwards. The man who hadn't spoken yet, his brows furrowing as he shouted, "Queenie?" into the void, quickly walking through the doorway. Newt and the tall woman who knew Credence exchanged quick glances, before following suit, Leta and Yusuf not far behind.

Credence looked at her sadly, and she could see his hope written all over his face, that maybe this was the way to find his elusive answers. She clung to his arm as they descended into the catacombs, walking around the upper level of an amphitheater that was filled with wizards. Her skin was crawling with the magic that was in the air, and a harsh realization hit her like a slap, her stomach twisting into knots.

"They're purebloods," she whispered, trying to urge him to leave, her neck burning where the curse had landed only a few days ago. "They kill the likes of us for sport."

But he ignored her, forging ahead and maneuvering his way into the crowd, his face set in a determined stare. Nagini followed reluctantly, not wanting to become separated from him, although now it was more for _her_ reassurance that he was still safe and alive. Her stomach was twisted up so tightly that she was afraid that she might actually throw up while they were waiting for…whatever this was to begin.

A hush fell over the crowd, before it broke out into cheers as Grindelwald emerged from a tunnel, taking his place on the stage beside an intimidatingly gorgeous woman. Nagini tightened her grip on Credence's arm as the wizard began to speak, smooth half-truths and platitudes falling from his lips.

The way he talked about non-wizards sent a shiver down her spine—that they needed to be put in their place and how purebloods had to be the ones to step up and do it… _for the greater good_. She had heard every variation of "this is only for the best," throughout her life—when the healing witches had said they couldn't keep her in the hospital; when someone smiled at her sympathetically and then whispered that she should be "put down"; everything people like Skender had done to her while using the excuse of keeping others or herself safe merely so they could abuse her. She didn't know what Grindelwald's plan was, but she frankly didn't need to. She had known enough men like him that she knew that he would only be satisfied at the top of the pyramid, and maybe non-wizards made up the base, but their lives would be as horrid and imprisoning as the cage she knew.

The visions of a war flashed before her, and she tightened her grip on Credence, trying to ground himself and her in reality. _Please don't believe him_ , she thought as the mushroom-shaped explosion lit the catacombs like daylight. _There must be another reason…the truth must be something more…_

Nagini stifled a gasp as Grindelwald revealed the Aurors in the crowd, feeling the hatred of those around her swell even more, hisses and quiet obscenities coming from those around her.

She turned to Credence, her eyes wide with fear—she didn't want to get them caught in a firefight, but his face was impassive…almost questioning.

A flash of green light came from the corner of her eye, and she snapped her head in that direction, choking back a sob as she saw a dead redheaded woman lying on the steps. Even though the redhead was one of Grindelwald's followers, she didn't deserve to be used as a tool by the wizard.

Her heart clenched in fear as everyone around them started to Disapparate, painfully aware that the two of them would be left exposed due to their lack of magical abilities. Nagini's eyes were transfixed on the blue fire that spurted from Grindelwald's wand, feeling the unnaturalness of the magic all around her. She vaguely noted his followers walking though, and that everyone they had met in the tunnel remained on the steps with them.

"Only here will you know freedom," Grindelwald proclaimed. "Only _here_ will you know the truth."

She watched as some Aurors started to turn and run, only to be consumed by the blue flames. "They knew the rules," he crowed childishly. Nagini felt Credence shift beside her, right as the dark wizard turned his gaze towards them.

"He knows who I am," her love said, his voice full of desperation and hope as he took a step down, pulling out of her grasp.

Nagini felt her heart breaking in her chest, watching the only person she'd ever loved start to walk away. And she wasn't upset just because he was leaving, but because she knew, she _knew_ that Grindelwald couldn't give him any answer that would give him peace or happiness.

"He knows who you were born," she pleaded, pulling on his arm, gently turning him to face her. "Not who you are."

Credence looked at her, not saying a word, but his face looked as pained as she felt. Her heart cracked in two as he turned away, letting out a grasp, unable to let out the words she desperately wanted to tell him: _I love you…please don't leave…_

Nagini couldn't let herself tell him she loved him, she couldn't handle the guilt if he walked away from something he so clearly wanted, just for her. She might not care where he came from or what name he was born with, but he was still crushed by his lack of identity and so haunted by his past, that carrying the name "Barebone" was a curse to him.

But she didn't care about the name. It was an indisputable part of Credence and she loved him…the man who loved his adopted sisters like they were his blood…who held her when she was feeling vulnerable and who let her soothe his broken edges…who kissed her in such a way that made her want to live a life full of love and hope, never quite caring when she was going to turn. Because when she was with him, she felt free and alive and that was more than enough for her.

Nagini couldn't tell him all that though, not in a room full of strangers, not when he finally thought he had his own salvation in his hands. She loved him enough to try and save him, even if that meant letting him go to find his answers by himself.

Tears blurred her eyes as she watched him merge with the flames and exit completely unharmed. She vaguely heard the man, Newt, shouting Credence's name and the hiss of spells as he fought the flames that crept closer.

She backed up, a strangled sound escaping her throat, falling backwards and her back hitting the stone steps painfully. She wasn't enough, she would never be enough for anyone, but she also couldn't blame him—one day she would leave him forever, trapped in the body of a snake. Nagini had hoped that even though she would never be able to save herself, she could have saved him.

Nagini forced herself to watch, her heart so broken it was a physical pain in her chest, as Grindelwald embraced Credence, whispering something in his ear, before she watched her friend, her love, disappear in a cloud of dark smoke.

* * *

 **A/N: Whew, that was a long one, but I hope you guys enjoyed it! There will be an epilogue coming soon, so keep an eye out in the next day or two.**

 **As always, please leave comments or favorites or follows, I appreciate all of the feedback!**


	3. Epilogue

**A/N: Here is the promised epilogue to this fic. I hope that I kept all the POVs in character.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Fantastic Beasts.**

 **Enjoy**

* * *

Queenie stared at the arches of Nurmengard Castle, totally aware that her mouth was dangling open and her blue eyes wide.

"I ain't never seen anything like this before," she breathed with a giggle. She still couldn't believe she had been picked to come here with Grindelwald—after all, only Vinda Rosier and Credence accompanied them.

Vinda took Queenie on a tour, showing her where she would be staying, while Grindelwald ushered Credence away. The blonde let out a mental sigh of relief as the younger man was led in the opposite direction, his tumultuous mind was difficult to ignore. He was hurtin' a whole bunch, but it had been giving her the beginnings of a headache. It was easier without him since Vinda's thoughts mostly revolved around the tour or Grindelwald, and Queenie didn't want to snoop too much. On the other hand, Grindelwald himself must be a really powerful Occulmens, since she couldn't hear _anything_ he was thinking, even when she was right next to him.

Her heart stuttered a bit as she remembered how Jacob never was very good at concealing his thoughts from her…it had been one of the things that made her fall for him in the first place. She shook herself, brushing the tears from her eyes before they could fall. _If he can't see that this is the only way we are gonna' be able to be together…well, that's on him_.

"I'm _not_ crazy," she muttered to herself. The insult had hurt even more coming from Jacob—he was supposed to love her, but he had hurt her when he called her… _that_. She had been called "crazy" and "freak" and every variation in between at Ilvemorny, until Teens had hexed Addy Brightbridge so badly her sister was in detention for a month.

"Ms. Goldstein," Vinda said quietly, placing a hand on her shoulder, her French accent sounding surprisingly sympathetic. " _He_ requires your…special abilities."

Queenie didn't know how Grindelwald knew she was a Legilimens, but she didn't feel like questioning it—here, she could be useful, instead of just a burden to Teens or Jacob.

The wizard was standing outside a double doorway, leaning nonchalantly against the wall. He nudged open one of the doors, indicating that Queenie should look inside, where she saw Credence staring forlornly at the mountains. At this distance, it wasn't difficult to hear or feel his thoughts, especially since they were so much stronger than anyone else's in the castle.

She saw glimpses of the circus—a cart filled with all kinds of beasts; a cage with a beautiful Asian woman inside; that same woman screaming as she was hit by a spell, her body twisting painfully. She even managed to decipher a few stray thoughts that passed through his mind: _left her…make the right choice…should have protected her…can I trust him…need to know who I am…_

"Is he frightened of me still?" Grindelwald asked lowly.

Even as he was speaking, Queenie got the strongest thought from Credence yet, and that was saying something. _Nagini…_ And the image of the Asian woman seemed to appear as clear as day in front of her eyes. The memory played out seemingly in slow motion: the woman, Nagini, looking up from where she was laying on his shoulder, her eyes fluttering open and she smiled lazily up at him, her hair turning a burnished onyx in the early morning light.

The entire memory was tinged with so much love and passion and affection, Queenie realized he must have been figuring out his feelings for the first time. Her heart sank in sympathy, she didn't know this Nagini woman, but no one deserved to be apart from the one they love, especially if he had never told her how he felt—if her and Jacob had done one thing right, it was that they had told each other they loved one another a bunch of times. She couldn't imagine what it would have been like if she had to leave him standing there, never having told him.

"You have to be careful with him," she finally replied, unable to stop the flood of regret and heartbreak that came from the young man. "He's not sure he's made the right choice. You have to be _very_ gentle with him."

Grindelwald nodded, finally opening the door and walking into the room to stand next to Credence.

 _It's not nice to snoop Queenie_ , Teens' voice rang in her head, but she was curious. Even though she couldn't get a good read off of the German wizard, she did get an immense feeling of determination whenever someone brought up Credence. He wanted him for _something_ , and she wanted to know what it was, what she had gotten herself into.

"I have a gift for you, my boy," she heard Grindelwald say quietly, a mix of apprehension and hope coming from Credence, the image of a wand in his hands quickly appearing. "You have suffered, the most heinous of betrayals, purposely bestowed upon you by your own blood. Your own flesh and blood, and just as he celebrates your torment, your brother seeks to destroy you."

A rare clear thought came from Grindelwald, but she only heard one word before his mind closed to her once again: _Albus_.

The rushing of air and the screech of a bird pierced the air clearly, as he continued. "There is a legend in your family, that a Phoenix will come to any member who is in dire need. It is your birthright, my boy, as is the name I now restore to you…"

A wave of anxiety and despondency crashed over her, nearly sending Queenie to her knees. She knew, without even trying to read his mind, what he was thinking, and that he was finally getting everything he wanted—a name, a history, a family—and that he felt Grindelwald had held up his end of the bargain.

"…Aurelius, Aurelius _Dumbledore_." The words echoed, and Queenie desperately wanted to gasp in shock, even in America, Albus Dumbledore was well-known as one of the most powerful wizards alive.

Queenie reached out a little, hearing things like, _is that who I am?...a Dumbledore…I finally have somewhere I belong…belonged with her though_ , from Credence, and the strongest feeling of victory and triumph from Grindelwald.

Curious, she focused in on the older wizard, wondering what he was thinking, especially as she heard windows shatter and a quiet explosion that shook the castle. _Finally_ , came the thought from Grindelwald, _an entity strong enough to defeat Albus_.

The blonde shivered slightly, as she pulled away from Grindelwald's mind, the feelings of malice and excitement and pride becoming too much for her. If he was confident that they could create a better world without much bloodshed, once Dumbledore and the rest of his followers were made to see the right path, she could be too.

For the greater good.

* * *

Letting out a deep breath, the air rattling as it passed through her lungs and throat, the tears there prevented her from breathing normally. Tina looked up at the sky, the last sparks from where the two fires had just died down, magical flakes of ash settling on her coat.

She looked over at Newt, her heart feeling incredibly heavy as he embraced his grieving older brother. She didn't know all of the history between the Scamander brothers, but she had a feeling that they had not always had the best relationship, remembering the gleeful look on Newt's face as she tied up Theseus in the French Ministry only hours earlier.

Tina smiled at him sadly over his brother's shoulder, their eyes meeting for a brief moment, but that was enough to send a blush racing through her cheeks. _Oh stop being silly_ , she thought, looking down and running a hand through her short hair. _You're not still in school, you can admit that you like him. Besides, Queenie is…_

Her stomach sank, and her entire body started to ache as she remembered her baby sister walking through that fire to join Grindelwald and his genocidal maniacs, completely ignoring her and Jacob's pleas for her to stay. Speaking of, she scanned the rest of the area, Flamel and Yusuf Kama talking to one another, just past where Jacob was sitting on the ground, his head in his hands.

She went over to her friend, feeling incredibly ashamed that she had been the one telling Queenie not to date him—in fairness, she was trying too keep her sister out of jail, but she could now admit that she might have been a little harsh—the two were clearly devoted to each other. Tina sat down, rubbing Jacob's back in what she hoped was a comforting way, letting her own tears start to roll down her cheeks. Their soft sobs mingled together, both of them grieving the amazing Legilimens they had let down.

The shuffling of feet alerted her, and she quickly shot upright, wiping at her eyes and trying to pull herself together for Newt. He reached out a hand, taking hers and giving it a squeeze, using the other to brush some dirt from her cheek.

"I'm so sorry, Tina," he muttered, looking from her to Jacob sadly.

The Auror nodded, not trusting herself to speak, afraid that if she looked in his expressive green eyes she would turn into a blubbering mess. A brief flash of blue and gold caught her eye and she saw the Maledictus from the circus, the one who was with Credence, lingering on the fringes of their little group.

"I'll be right back, Mr. Scamander," she promised, reluctantly taking her hand out of his and walking over to the girl. "Excuse me, I'm Tina Goldstein. You were the Maledictus with Credence, right? Do you know why he would have gone with Grindelwald?"

The girl nodded, turning to look at Tina, her own pretty features streaked with tear tracks. "My name is Nagini, and he…he was looking for where he came from, I just wanted to be free from that awful place. You came to the circus one night, the night we finally escaped. Were you there for him?"

Tina nodded, "I knew him back in New York. I once promised to take him away from his horrible mother, but I'm afraid it didn't quite work out that way. He was so alone when I knew him, and with his sister dead, I can't imagine…well, he really seemed to care about you."

She was going for reassuring, but from the way the girl's face crumpled and she looked up, blinking a fresh round of tears out of her eyes, Tina wasn't sure if she came off that way. Maybe bringing up Chastity Barebone's accidental death wasn't a great idea.

"I…I lov…" Nagini stuttered, and Tina sucked in a breath as she realized what she was trying to say.

"Do you love him?" She asked gently, almost afraid of the answer.

The younger woman nodded, tears turning her dark eyes into mirrors when she turned to look at Tina. "It seems silly thinking about it now, such a little thing compared to everything that just happened," she said, her voice thick as she gestured an arm towards the destroyed crypt. "But…I never got to tell him," she paused, biting her lip and her voice dropping to a whisper. "I wanted someone to know."

Without much thought, she reached her arms out, pulling Nagini into a hug, muttering into her hair, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I think…I think we're all feeling something similar right now."

"That blonde woman?" She inquired, pulling back slightly, her face full of concern. "Who was she?"

"Queenie," Tina grinned a watery grin, "she was my sister, and Jacob's—that man over there—girlfriend."

"I'm sorry she went with him," Nagini apologized, wrapping her arms around herself. "But are we ever going to get them back? I can't…I don't want to have lost him forever."

"Grindelwald is a dangerous wizard, but he's not invincible, we'll find a way to bring him down," she promised, glancing over her shoulder to where, Newt, Theseus, Flamel, and Kama were having an intense discussion. "Mr. Scamander, Newt, he's a good man and a great wizard, he'll know someone or some beast that can help in the fight to come. If you want, we can help you get back to your family."

Nagini shrugged sadly, "I don't have anyone anymore. And, if it's alright with you, I wish to help. If Credence is in danger…I want to sav…we still need to live."

Tina was incredibly surprised by the strength and kindness of the young woman in front of her—she was willing to face down _the_ most powerful dark wizard in the world, with no powers of her own, all for the boy she was in love with.

"We're going to go see Dumbledore," Newt interrupted awkwardly, his eyes glancing at Nagini before turning his attention to Tina. "He's at Hogwarts, and I don't know if you've been there, if you want to go by Side-Along…"

"That would be nice," Tina gently interrupted his babbling. "Thank you, and do you think, someone could assist Nagini here? She wants to help us, Mr. Scamander."

"Oh, hello, I'm Newt," he introduced, sticking his hand out, his eyes flitting between the ground and the younger woman. Nagini looked at the outstretched hand for a second, surprise crossing her face briefly before she shook his hand gingerly. "If you don't mind me asking, why do you want to help?"

"Credence is my friend," she stumbled over the last word, but her gaze was strong, the tears nearly gone from her eyes. "I hope to see him again before…before it's too late."

Newt nodded solemnly, the hurt from Leta Lestrange's death still written on his face—it appeared as if she wasn't the only one who had picked up on the younger woman's feelings for the Barebone boy. Tina was impressed how he interacted with her, almost as if he was working with one of his more skittish beasts. Nagini's apprehension slowly gave way to trust as he waved Theseus over and making quick introductions.

"You'll be alright," she reassured her, as Kama and Jacob and Travers joined the foursome. Nagini was looking incredibly nervous as more and more people joined, and likely about Apparating for the first time as well. "Apparation's uncomfortable at first, but keep your eyes open and don't let go of Theseus."

She nodded, accepting Kama's overcoat to put around her shoulders. "I just hope it's not more uncomfortable than transforming."

Tina didn't quite know how to respond to that statement—she didn't know what her transformation was like, but she sincerely hoped that process was not weird and trying as Apparation. But she had a sinking feeling that such a hope was simply a wishful thought. She smiled reassuringly as Nagini took Theseus's arm, the two disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Taking a deep breath, she grabbed Newt's arm, smiling up at him and saw the magizoologist staring at him intently. _Eyes like fire on water_ , she thought giddily. The compliment was so incredibly _Newt_ , she felt her stomach fill with butterflies as she remembered the way he had stumbled his way to the inevitable conclusion: _like a salamander_.

She heard the familiar ' _pop_ ' that accompanied Apparation, and when the world came back into focus again, she found herself on a high, marble bridge, gazing up at a magnificent castle. Tina looked around, seeing Jacob and Nagini staring at the castle with looks that probably mirrored her own awe.

At Hogwarts, they now might have a chance at saving their loved ones.

* * *

 **A/N: And that's it for my little slice of the Fantastic Beasts world (at least for now)! Please don't be shy about leaving comments or leaving favorites/following.**

 **Thanks again to everyone who took the time to read this!**


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